


The Wheel

by HarperPotts



Series: Game of Thrones - Alternate Endings [1]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21776041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarperPotts/pseuds/HarperPotts
Summary: Jon Snow makes a different choice
Series: Game of Thrones - Alternate Endings [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569346
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	The Wheel

**The Wheel**  
  
“We do it together,” Daenerys urged. “We break the wheel together.”  
  
Jon had come to speak with her, to hear Daenerys defend her actions with her own words, but all she did was spout Targeryen madness. Conquer the entire world, a never-ending war, and herself above all others as the ultimate judge of right and wrong, willing to murder hundreds of thousands.  
  
He remembered the words of the man who would always be his father. The most honorable man he’d ever known. “The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.”  
  
He’d been fighting against what he had to do, but now he was certain. As they embraced he plunged his dagger into the heart of the Mad Queen. Death came swiftly. She didn’t even have any final words as the shock and betrayal in her eyes faded with her life. He lowered her gently to the floor as Drogon roared.  
  
He’d known the great beast was smart, even smarter than Ghost, but this was magic. It knew. Somehow it knew and it was coming from him. He backed away from winged death as it landed, but instead it went to Daenerys and nuzzled her like a hound at its dead master. She’d called herself Mother of Dragons, and he knew the stories, but only now did he realize the full truth of them. Drogon mourned what was his mother in every way.  
  
Jon dodged quickly as Drogon reared to breathe flame. He’d expected to feel the flames but instead the beast aimed at the throne. The damned throne that Daenerys had been telling stories about just minutes before. As the beast gently scooped up the Mother of Dragons and flew away, Jon realized that he’d still underestimated the creature’s intelligence.  
  
“You know nothing, Jon Snow,” played once again in his mind. Ygritte. He should have stayed in that cave with her. He’d as good as killed her. Now his only other lover was dead at his own hand. Duty is the death of love. He should have loved Daenerys. That’s all she’d asked of him. If he hadn’t rejected her, if he hadn’t left her alone and isolated when all closest to her turned their backs on her, would this have happened?  
  
He still knew nothing. Sansa wanted him for the throne, as did Tyrion, but they would name him Queenslayer. He had become Jamie Lannister. What was left for him? He walked to the ledge where a dwindling speck in the sky was all that could be seen of the last dragon. Hundreds of feet below him lay the broken ruins of King's Landing  
  
He stepped forward.  
  


.oOo.

  
“Bran the Broken” came the votes one after another. It had been a surprising solution the Imp offered, but it suited. One after another they pledged until…  
  
“The North will remain an independent kingdom, as it has for thousands of years,” stated Sansa Stark.  
  
“Fuck this then.” Edmure Tully surged to his feet. “The Riverlands, or more properly, Kingdom of the Rivers and the Hills, was an independent kingdom as well. Just as the North was. If the Seven Kingdoms are to be broken, then let them all be broken. I will not bend my knee to a Northman when even the North will not. I declare myself King of the Riverlands.”  
  
Yara Greyjoy stood as well. “And I am Queen of the Ironborn. If we are not one, we are seven.”  
  
And the wheel turned on.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this shortly after season eight. Along with several other alternate endings that I'll be posting shortly. One of these spun off into Dovah Queen which is where most of my writing effort is going now, but I wanted to share these shorts as well.
> 
> I honestly would have preferred this ending to the one we got.


End file.
